Chronicling Canada by cartoon
Two books by well-known editorial cartoonists celebrate our country’s politics and identity
In a year when Canadians are celebrating our country’s 150th birthday, two of its sharpest and funniest editorial cartoonists have gifted us with two very different works that each celebrate our shared history and identity in their own way.
Drawing on more than two decades of cartooning experience, Halifax-based Michael de Adder has just released You Might Be From Canada If . . . with 128 new drawings gently lampooning all things Canadian, from beer to bad weather.
Terry Mosher, better known by his nom de skewer, Aislin, is celebrating his five decades in the business from his “perch” in Montreal with From Trudeau to Trudeau: 50 Years in Cartooning.
“It’s not going to be my last book but it’s kind of a swan song. I wanted to look at 50 years of cartooning and to have the opportunity of sort of summing up your career is quite a privilege. Most people don’t get to do that,” Mosher said in an interview.
He recounts a recent encounter that provided a reminder of his own longevity.
“The other day I was doing a book signing and a younger man came up . . . about 20 or 21 and well-dressed and I said, ‘let me guess, you’re buying this for your dad’ and he said, ‘well actually, I’m buying it for my grandfather,’ ” he recalled with a laugh.
De Adder found himself with a more challenging task, producing original new work that helps define what makes us Canadian in ways both poignant and funny. It helped that he had already done previous books of a similar theme covering Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.
“It was daunting. I didn’t want to give people exactly what they were expecting out of a book like this. I wanted to be different and inclusive. I just (went) one step in front of the other and did one cartoon at a time and my hope was to get a picture of Canada by the end,” de Adder said.
“I started with the obvious things that we might all have in common, like Mr. Dressup and hockey and Canadian Tire money. I have already done a lot of the leg work by thinking of what makes us Canadian, what makes a good cartoon. It was an immense amount of work to take everything I’ve done and then do a pile more of research and then put it into a book,” he added.
Mosher’s first editorial cartoon appeared in the now-defunct Montreal Star in1967, the year Montreal hosted a World Expo, a few months before the election of prime minister Pierre Trudeau and at a time of rising Quebec nationalism.
Political events, including two Quebec referendums, would shape and shake the country for the next five decades and provide Mosher with plenty of ready material.
“I’ve had the benefit of so many electric moments in Montreal. It’s been a great place to draw cartoons and to have a perspective on many of these elements (of history),” Mosher recalled.
The book is filled with Mosher’s own concise and well-written commentary to provide necessary historical context.
Providing context and defining character is something that both of these books touch on.
De Adder said producing his book reminded him of the characteristic that defines and unites so many of us: our introspective search for the elusive Canadian identity.
“Just asking the question itself is probably the number one thing about being a Canadian. We actually all have a lot in common, from Toronto to Iqaluit to if you just got here. I’m sure a lot of Syrian refugees are wondering what it is to be a Canadian, and they’re in the same boat we’re in,” de Adder said.
“I think that was the No. 1 thing I took from doing this book, our own confusion about our own identity. Look at the things we’ve been questioning, the referendums, the Constitution. They’re inherently about questioning who we are,” he added. For Mosher — who has a body of work numbering more than 13,000 drawings — editorial cartoons play a vital role in political discourse and cultural life.
“Cartoons really are a vox populi, a voice for the people, a history not so much about politicians but about how people felt about the politicians,” he said.
And while more than a few politicians have felt the pain of his pointed perusal, Mosher said he’s far from curmudgeonly about his home and native land.
“You might be surprised to hear me say this, but despite the fact that I have been such a critic, I love the place. I’m very grateful to be here and I’m grateful for the fact that I can criticize the place. We’re very good at laughing at ourselves in Canada and this is a tremendous thing,” Mosher said.
De Adder said the process of creating his latest work became a surprisingly poignant experience.
“There were a few moments when I got emotional drawing the book. In Canada, we don’t call ourselves patriots. It’s more of a kinder pride in how we look after each other. It’s a little different. So I guess I channelled my inner Canadian,” he said.